


Family Bonds

by Blue_Sparkle



Series: Tales and Missadventures of a Thief, His Soldier and All the Others [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, M/M, unfounded feelings of abandonment
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-09
Packaged: 2018-01-01 00:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1038361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Sparkle/pseuds/Blue_Sparkle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dori knows he should be happy for his brothers, and he sort of is, but it's hard when both of them will soon be married and have their own family and no real need for him anymore</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Bonds

**Author's Note:**

> should probably be read after the first part of the series, but can still be understood on it's own

There still were tiny shards on the table, lying where they had since the cups cracked, with cold tea pooling between them. Before some of it had dripped to the floor in a slow but steady pace, now there was nothing left of that particular puddle except for what was now under the table. Dori knew that he should clean it away, wipe away the tea and collect the shards lest somebody cut their finger on them later. 

He really could not care less at this point though, and each time he looked in the direction of the mess he’d made he just turned away from it again, staring down at the unbroken cup with the cold tea in his hands. He had broken an entire set of cups that day, pity, it had been his favourite, a pretty set not too fancy but also nice enough to be used when there was a special occasion. Now all that remained was the single cup in his hand.

Dori should have known better than to try and make tea when he was so agitated, or he should have used a more sturdy set, one that would not crumble in his grip like the other one had, or would not crack when put on the table with too much force. He hadn’t thought that he would snap like he had though.

First it was Ori, only approaching Dori with a very serious but also defiant expression on his face. After the previous weeks there was tension between them, with Ori hardly ever staying at their house at all, or Ori reorganizing the scrolls and books that he did not keep in the library, carefully testing which could be transported to be stored somewhere else and which he needed the most.

Ori, too young for proper beads and clasps in their family’s style, wearing silver cords in his slightly crooked braids instead of the purple thread he had always worn as a child, just like Nori had once, and Dori too, before he grew up. Just like their mother had always done until they were old enough to braid their own hair or wear their beads. 

He didn’t do it every day of course, but Dori would see him like that and feel his chest constrict. He would try to offer Ori to braid his hair, brushing it and tying the new purple silk into Ori’s hair. He knew that Ori would complain about him being fussy later, and the more he did it the more he annoyed his brother. But each time he had done Ori’s hair he would not unbraid it to return with the silver gleaming in his carefully yet still messily done braids.

Ori had come to him the morning before Dori broke the tea set, determined and only a little bit nervous. 

“Kíli will propose to me officially soon”, he had said, with not a bit of doubt in his voice, as if it was already decided. “We would have kept it quiet, and we still will as he’s not the heir, but he _is_ related to the King, so we must go about the courting properly.”

Just the way Ori said it, the way he looked at Dori as if he wasn’t _asking_ merely informing him of his plans… It was nearly too much to bear and the resulting argument did end up with the shouting at one another, Dori trying to explain that Ori was too young, that he should have asked first, and Ori yelling back that it did not matter what Dori said about it, it was already decided and Kíli and he only need to get the courting done before he would join Kíli’s family.

He had stormed out afterwards, angry at Dori and leaving his older brother to try and compose himself, for once glad that he was alone in the house and had nowhere else to go at that moment.

Dori still felt a cold pang in his heart when he thought of it. And it wasn’t even that he was against Kíli and Ori being together. Kíli was a good lad, being sweet on Ori even before their quest to reclaim Erebor had really started, and they had only gotten close then. They had a good relationship from what Dori could see, Ori was very quiet and private about it after all. Kíli got along all right with Nori, and was very polite if not a little afraid around Dori, and he treated Ori well. 

It was a healthy relationship, and once in a while Ori would be angry out pout for days about something that happened but once Dori accidentally overheard both of them in Ori’s room, discussing whatever had happened (and it was always such little things they fought about) and Ori having to practically convince Kíli that he did not need to apologize every few minutes. Ori was legally an adult now, and Kíli was nearly ninety, both of them at an age when I would be normal to marry. 

There was no reason for Dori to be against it. Really none at all. And still it broke his heart. Ori would move in with Kíli and that wasn’t too bad, they would still be close by and the entire company often met up anyway so it was not like he would never see his little brother again. 

Ori would be part of the King’s closest kin, he would always wear beads and jewels that marked him as royalty, he would be wearing Durin-blue now, and the hems of his clothes would have the same patterns as those Kíli wore, he would no longer have the patterns he had in the past or those that were so common among most scribes and scholars, if he’d want to keep his old clothes Dori would cut the old embroidery and hems away, or perhaps he would commission a new set as what was fine for a scribe and hero of Erebor would be too simple for the husband of one of the princes.

He would no longer belong to the house of Ri then. He _already_ was no longer the affectionate child who always wanted to hold on to Dori or his legs he had a life of his own, of course, but now he would return to his own home each day, to be with Kíli, and now he would not need Dori anymore.

He would have to let Ori go eventually, but this was too soon, he was not really ready for it.

And then there was also Nori, with whom he finally had gotten as close as they had been in their youth. It was so nice to not always fight about everything, Nori wouldn’t dash off as soon as he thought there’d be a conflict, and Dori didn’t mind most of the things Nori was doing anymore. It was so nice to have his sweet brother back and be closer than they had in years. 

It took Ori being increasingly absent for Dori to notice that Nori wasn’t home as often as he could be. That he would sometimes come back in the afternoon, and normally it would mean that he had spend the night outside, but he had actually been at Dwalin’s house instead. And he would be _there_ more and more, as if _that_ was the place he lived in, and not the house he shared with his brothers.

Dori had known that the relationship between Nori and Dwalin was an actual relationship, that they had been having a thing in Ered Luin, that they had started being actually close later. At first Dori had tried not to think of it, about how his younger brother kept sleeping with someone like that, how it just was wrong that Nori actually started to bring whatever fling he was having home. He had assumed it would not last long, that they’d grow bored of one another, or that Dwalin would decide that Nori was too much of a scoundrel after all.

Dwalin was decent enough though, treating Nori well, being polite to Dori and nice to Ori, and even though Dori hadn’t known what to think of someone from such a good family being with someone like Nori he later decided that that too was a good thing. It had been surprising to see Dwalin treat Nori with some sort of camaraderie, to have Dwalin stand at Dori’s door each time after returning from a long absence, asking about Nori and looking disappointed when he found him gone.

They had their bad moments, of course. Dori had wanted to break Dwalin’s arms each time Nori came to him, upset and actually heartbroken enough to huddle next to him, clinging to his older brother for comfort. Nobody could just go around doing that to Dori’s family and get away with it. But he knew Nori, knew how difficult he could be and he saw Dwalin watching him with hurt and confusion, so Dori let it be, sure that they wouldn’t be at each others throats at least. 

It had worked out in the end, whatever it was that had them fight not important enough to persist in Mirkwood, and there really wasn’t a thing Dori could think of that might have been hurtful enough. And now… 

Now Nori would spend most of the time he could be at home over at Dwalin’s, now he would often steal pastries from the kitchen of which Dori remembered that Dwalin liked them and Nori didn’t, now he would smile and look at Dwalin fondly and not just in private, publically showing affection like he maybe would only have done for Ori before and with such a besotted way that Dori felt like he didn’t have the right to see that.

Still, somehow Dori had never really thought about what that might mean for him. After Ori had stormed out and he had nearly managed to compose himself he had briefly wondered about whether Nori might return soon, and what he’d think about Ori and Kíli. Instead Dwalin had showed up, asking Dori for permission to court his other brother. 

And that should have been good, having someone from such a noble family official asking, being proper and polite about it, someone like Dwalin who was a good friend of theirs, and possibly the best that had ever happened to Nori, someone who would make his brother happy.

It should have been, Dori should have felt so happy and pleased about this.

Ori would marry the King’s nephew and Nori Thorin’s cousin, both Kíli and Dwalin were of the line of Durin and good Dwarves beside that. What else could one ask for? Both would be happy, both would wear the braids of royalty at special occasions, and their fine clothes and family crests would now have the knot-pattern of Durin and they just wouldn’t need Dori in their lives that much. If at all.

He shouldn’t have, but the thought of both of his brothers moving on and away from his life at the same time made Dori snap. He shouldn’t have, but he broke the first of the cups then, shouting at Dwalin and pushing him out of the house, and it wasn’t right, Dwalin had simply chosen the worst possible moment to tell him that, right after Ori had announced that he would marry. 

It wasn’t like that at all but still Dori felt like that family was taking all that was dear to him, taking it and not even caring about what he thought.

There really was no doubt that Nori would want to marry too, not with the way he looked at Dwalin and behaved around him. Both his brothers would marry and there was nothing he could do about it.

The thought of finding a way to legally stop Ori’s betrothal had occurred to him, even though it wasn’t likely for just one member of his family to stand a chance against all of the royal one. And Nori would not listen to what he said or find a way around any obstacle if he really wanted to. Dori had cracked the second cup he was trying to fill with tea at that though. 

How could he even consider that?

It did not matter what _he_ felt about it, he had no right to stop either of his brothers. Even if it broke his heart.

Dori had gotten angry at it all, smashing the next two cups without care for the hot tea spilling everywhere, and then he had dropped another as his hands started shaking too much.

It was getting darker, the sun was already set outside of the mountain and Dori wasn’t even sure how long he had sat at the table, staring at the shards. He hadn’t even really cried though he felt like it, and only little sobs without tears had escaped his mouth, always so quiet no matter how terrible he felt or how much his heart was aching.

Dori stared down at the cold tea in his hands and pushed the cup aside, over to the shards he should be picking up. The kitchen was dark enough for him to consider lighting the lamps, but he didn’t feel like moving at all. With one last sigh Dori buried his face in his hands, trying to shove all selfish thoughts about forbidding his brothers to marry away.

He sat there, not looking up or moving, and somehow he hoped that either of his brothers would come home soon, would see the shards and help him clean the kitchen, or maybe just wordlessly embrace him and promise to not do anything to upset him, like they sometimes did when they didn’t know what else might have happened. He hoped, despite knowing better, that one of them would spend the night at their house, but of course, nobody else entered the house until it was well past midnight.

**Author's Note:**

> Dori's got a case of empty nest syndrome after having both his brothers leave at the same time? hu. basically his point of view for Chapter 6 of the first story  
> there will be a second chapter soon


End file.
